American Landscape Painting in Oil Created by: Grade Level: Overview Anticipatory Set Objectives Materials & Resources Room Set-Up:

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1 American Landscape Painting in Oil Featuring Artists from Joslyn s Collection: Alfred Bierstadt & Hans Hofmann and from artist JK Thorsen Created by: J.K. Thorsen, Full-Time Artist, jkt@jkthorsen.com, Grade Level: Open Overview While using environmentally friendlier materials, this oil painting lesson will assist students in developing a landscape composition with a focus on spontaneity, expression, and color. Students will combine oil painting practices while be encouraged to paint in their own-style. Instincts will be encouraged, and compositions will be assisted by either producing studies/sketches outdoors and using their own sketches as references or studying/sketching painting images provided by Joslyn s art collection, including Alfred Bierstadt and Hans Hofmann, as well as painting references by artist JK Thorsen. Anticipatory Set As students become closer to nature, they also begin to appreciate their own process and artwork. Students will be encouraged to think for themselves while creating paintings that exhibit their individual expression. In turn they will be asked to treat their artwork like jewels, like their own beating hearts. Objectives Students will produce simple sketch/study. Students will set-up their own palette. Students will produce an authentic painting focusing on spontaneity, expression, and color. Students will collaborate in the demonstration and assist each-other in the process. Materials & Resources Room Set-Up: 1 standing or table easel for each student. 1 table or shared table for every 2 students Blue work paper towels for each table 1 paper grocery trash bag for each student 2 tables for paints and palette-prep Tape available to tape studies & refs on easels Workshop Supplies 1 canvas board per attendee; 16 x 20 or larger. 1 small surface for sketch/study. Oil Paints (Alkyd Free) Blick Student or Artist Grade. 1

2 o Prussian blue, Cobalt blue, lemon yellow, transparent or Indian yellow, orange, Alizarian crimson, Phthalo green, light green, transparent or mixing white, Perelyne black. Continued Landscape Painting Workshop Supplies Whole Oil Medium, (2 parts fine art quality linseed oil, 1 part fine art quality walnut oil, 3 parts spike oil of lavender or Eco-House Extra Mild Citrus Thinner). Dropper bottles or small squeeze bottles for medium 3 large - 1in chip brushes each One liner or sketching brush each for study 1 large palette and/or large palette paper taped to a hard surface for each student. If needed palette should be allowed to be held, mobil. The larger the better. Must be heavy if working plein air. Please no small foam plates. One large mouthed glass paint thinner jar filled with Spike Oil of Lavender or Eco-House Xtra Mild Citrus Thinner per student. No petrol-based or chemically refined thinners please. 1 cardboard mat strip per student. Palette knife or knives for each student for mixing and painting 3-4 sets of gloves for each student Name Tags and Markers Alfred Bierstadt Image Hans Hofmann Image JK Thorsen Images Instructor s Resources Painter s Craft, Tad Spurgeon JK Thorsen Web site Albert Bierstadt Poster (Found on Joslyn Web Site) Vocabulary Palette Medium Alla Prima Push and Pull of Color Lesson Outline Color Temperature Light, Object, Shadow Composition Authentic I. Review images (from hand-out & power point) & ideas for relevant landscape paintings A. Albert Bierstadt, Hans Hofmann and JK Thorsen a. Where are the lights and darks? b. Where is there a focal point in the painting- or is there order to the painting? c. Was the painting buildt one layer at a time or alla prima? Was it completed in the field, or worked in multiple sessions? B. Ask questions while reviewing memory, mind s eye and instincts. 2

3 a. What is the composition going to be? b. Where will the focal point be? c. Horizon high or low? d. Using the rule of thirds, can you place a tree, lake or other focal point at one of the four sweet spots on your painting surface? C. Ask questions while discussing a paintings essence, a painter s influences, and jumping-off points. a. Are the brushstrokes blended together or put down one at a time? How does this affect the energy of the image? D. Briefly mention abstraction. More importantly emphasize the allowance of a painting to assume a life of its own. Share the concept of a painting sharing the lead with the artist and painting from within. a. Ask the students to be open to shifts that are likely to occur as they paint. b. Remind students to allow the guiding idea or theme to change as often as they like. c. Explain to students that if they feel they are at a dead-end or frustrated with one concept, go on to another, or allow surprises within a painting to further their growth. II. III. IV. Invite students to choose a painting, memory or a concept to reference as they produce a study and then a painting. A. Offer students the opportunity to choose a word from the list, (or any other open-minded idea), when beginning their study sketch and painting. Ask students to keep the word in mind as they go through the initial stages of the painting. Allow it to float there don t over think it. Allow it to guide intuitive choices, and stay with it as long as it is working for you. (Solitude, earth, climb, fragile, connect, rooted, journey, watery, ancient ) Provide palette-prep and color-mixing demonstration with full student participation, (limited palette). A. Provide information through questions about color and temperature and transparency. a. Generally speaking, is yellow warm or cool? When is yellow cool? (When a very small amount of a cool color is mixed with yellow, such as green.) b. Generally speaking, is blue warm or cool? When is blue warm? (When a very small amount of a warm color is mixed with blue, such as yellow.) c. Mix a small amount of medium with each color on palette. Enough so that the viscosity of the paint is moving. d. Allow several students to mix oil with the paint. Have one student assist the next student and so-on. Provide study demo with full student participation & collaboration. 3

4 A. Sketch loosely from concept or provided images. Mention rule of thirds, order, fulcrums and going beyond academic, (beyond rules). B. Sketch together briefly on a small surface with pencil or with brush and one paint color. V. Using sketch/study or image, provide painting demonstration with full student participation & collaboration. A. Have easel set-up. B. Using study sketch or painting reference begin painting using a fencing-type position a. Paint from shoulder not from wrist or fingers; stand an arms-length from surface. b. Tone the panel or canvas-board. Choose a color and thin it with thinner; pick-up some of the color with folded or crumbled work towel. c. Use yellow or pale color to pull composition forward, use dark color to push composition back. d. If there is a focal point, place in one of four sweet spots. e. Rather than focus on abstraction, encourage students to edit their studies, surroundings or images. f. Allow students to place paint on surface with brush, knife and fingers. Have one student assist the next student, and so-on. g. Paint in big shapes of the painting. Work loosely. Where is the darkest dark? Set it down. Where is the lightest light? Set that down. Once you have established these two values on your painting, every other brushstroke is going to be in RELATION to your darkest and your lightest light. VI. VII. Allow students to set-up and paint. A. Remind students to use image or study as a jumping-off point. B. Remind students to be spontaneous and courageous. C. Remind students that this is a safe-place to explore and grow. D. Remind students that there are not any mistakes just new journeys. E. Remind students to allow paintings to take-on a life of their own; using their study or chosen painting reference for a limited time only. F. Allow quality time to observe, listen and to paint from within. G. Ask students to consider applying a glaze to their paintings in a few days, (extended alla prima). a. Provide brief glazing demonstration using a quinacradone or transparent yellow or rose. Closing, life-long follow-up homework suggestions. A. Observe a sunrise & sunset at least once a month. 4

5 a. While observing, face the opposite direction of the sunrise or sunset to view the light and shadows. b. If unable to view sunset or sunrise, allow time to watch the light change and move around your surroundings. B. Remind students to treat, transport and value their paintings as if their paintings were their own beating hearts. Extensions This lesson could be applied to an abstract expressionist painting class, plein air painting, alla prima painting and abstract figurative painting class. This lesson could be applied to an American Modernist painting curricula using John Marin, the father of American Modernism, as a reference., Images: Hans Hofmann, Morning 5

6 Alfred Bierstadt, Dawn at Donner Lake 6

7 JK Thorsen, Loess Hills Link to brief painting demonstration video. Standards (NDE & Common Core) 7